The first season of The Last of Us is nearing its conclusion, and fans have largely enjoyed every episode of the stellar HBO series.
That is, with the exception of two episodes. The season’s third and seventh episodes, titled “Long Long Time” and “Left Behind,” are distinctly less popular on review aggregation sites like IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic. The latter, which provides a handy breakdown of each episode and its individual scores, makes it clear to see the separation between these two episodes and their peers, which typically land in the 7 – 8 range. The show’s two “gay” entries, however, sit at a matched 5.2, far lower than any other season one episode.
People can argue that its about pacing, or filler, or whatever they want, but it’s clear exactly what issue some viewers have with these episodes. Namely, both are self-contained stories that establish characters and stories that are not heteronormative. “Long Long Time” follows a side character from the games, Bill, in a much more fleshed-out manner, detailing his love story with Frank from start to end, and “Left Behind” covers the game’s DLC of the same name, helping explain Ellie’s backstory with her closest childhood friend, Riley.
In both, people of the same sex share at least one kiss. Ellie and Riley’s moment was brief, but elating, and gave viewers a deeper glimpse into who the character of Ellie is as a person. And, considering that — despite complaints — Ellie is the true protagonist of this story (sorry Joel) it makes sense to dig deeper into her background, and explain the series of events that led to the discovery of her immunity.
But it’s more than that. It’s also an examination of a person that helped make Ellie who she is, and a moment that poised her to become the woman she’ll someday be. Riley is a singularly important person to Ellie, and that kiss — followed so painfully closely by Riley’s death — is a massive, titular moment in Ellie’s life.
According to some viewers, that kiss didn’t have a lick of romance in it. Instead, as one utterly atrocious take outlines, it was more of a family matter, as “that kiss was probably just because Ellie thinks of Riley as a mother figure because Riley helped her survive that long.”
Pardon us while we gag in the corner, and take a moment to re-read the biggest reach of season one — so far, at least.
In case you need it explained to you: no, Ellie does not see Riley as any form of maternal figure. She sees her as a best friend and a longtime crush, and — by the end of episode seven — as a future possibility. At least, until they are attacked and bitten, and any future they may have had was cut short.
That big smile Ellie gives Riley when she tries to apologize for her spontaneous kiss, only for Riley to respond with a “for what,” cannot be perverted into some weird mother/daughter connection. We get it, some ultra straight feelings are hurt when LGBTQ+ people actually get some visibility in media, but Ellie was always gay, Bill was always gay, and guess what? New gay characters will be introduced in season two, and they weren’t created by “woke” HBO just to mess with the straight agenda.
Commenters were quick to poke fun at season one’s worst take yet, noting that “Oedipus has entered the chat” and poking fun at the original poster, who clearly “has some weird feelings about their mother.” Perhaps the best take of the thread, past jokes about Freud and ponderings about how the masses will digest Dina in future seasons, was a callback to Vine in the perfect, unembellished “They were roommates.”
At the end of the day, these characters were always a part of Naughty Dog’s games, and were always rich, interesting, and also gay. Some of these viewers really need to stop being so sensitive, get over it, and stop trying so hard to find a straight angle on things.